3 Useful GUI and Terminal Based Linux Disk Scanning Tools

There mainly two reasons for scanning a computer hard disk: one is to examine it for filesystem inconsistencies or errors that can result from persistent system crashes, improper closure of critical system software and more significantly by destructive programs (such as malware, viruses etc).

And another is to analyze its physical condition, where we can check a hard disk for bad sectors resulting from physical damage on the disk surface or failed memory transistor.

In this article, we will review a mix of GUI and terminal based disk scanning utilities for Linux.

In case you notice any unusual behavior from a computer hard disk or a particular partition, one of the first things you can always investigate is filesystem inconsistency or errors and there is no other better utility for performing this other than fsck.

1. fsck – Filesystem Consistency Check

fsck is a system utility used to check and optionally repair a Linux filesystem. It is a front-end for several filesystem checkers.

ii. Gnome Disk Utility( or Disks)

Gnome disk utility offers a GUI for doing all the partition management related tasks such as creating, deleting, mounting partitions and beyond. It comes pre-installed in majority of mainstream Linux systems such as Ubuntu, Fedora, Linux Mint and others.

To use it on Ubuntu, open the Dash and search for Disks, on Linux Mint, open Menu and search for Disks and on Fedora, click on Activities type Disks.

Gnome Disk Utility for Linux Disk Scanning

More importantly, it can as well provide S.M.A.R.T data and effect self-tests as in the following interface.

Gnome Disk Utility for Linux Disk Scanning

That’s it! In this article, we reviewed hard disk scanning utilities for Linux operating system. You can share with us any utilities/tools for the same purpose, that are not mentioned in the list above or ask any related questions all in the comments.

Aaron Kili is a Linux and F.O.S.S enthusiast, an upcoming Linux SysAdmin, web developer, and currently a content creator for TecMint who loves working with computers and strongly believes in sharing knowledge.

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